CHARLOTTE COUNTY, Fla. — On Thursday, concerns about septic tanks leaking into rivers and harbors in North Port, are drawing the attention of water quality leaders in Charlotte County.
A joint meeting was held at the Murdock Administration Center in Port Charlotte between Charlotte County and the city of North Port. Commissioners discussed how to eliminate these pollutants in North Port, which could flow downstream into Charlotte County.
Brandon Moody, Charlotte County's Water Quality Manager said in the past, the county had a similar problem where they found traces of artificial sweetener - which doesn’t break down in human urine - in surface waters (places like rivers and harbors).
On Thursday, this was something the city of North Port said they want to look for as well.
I asked Moody, does this mean that there is urine and fecal matter from people's bodies in the surface water?
"Not necessarily,” said Moody.
Moody said the primary focus is on an overload of nutrients leaking out of these septic tanks - which he says can cause algae blooms in waterways, but,
“If a septic tank is completely malfunctioning, then you could potentially have bacteria impairments as well,” said Moody.
During the joint meeting, Moody said that despite North Port being located in Sarasota County, both areas basically share the same waterways - which older septic tanks could be leaking pollutants into.
“Both the Big Slough from North Port, which discharges into the Myakka River, which then flows into Charlotte Harbor - the Peace River, which also flows into the eastern part of the harbor,” said Moody during Thursday's meeting.
Over the past 10 years, Moody said Charlotte County has removed over 2,500 septic tanks and converted them into a central sewer service.
Elizabeth Wong, the Stormwater Manager from the city of North Port, said they are looking for is artificial sweeteners found in surface waters that travel in urine.
"The canal creek program, which is the one that just started last year, we monitored what's coming into North Port and it's interesting. There are things coming into north port,” said Wong.
Moody said Charlotte County has been working closely with North Port to help guide them on how to study the number of pollutants in North Port's waterways.
“Their staff and our staff have been working quite a bit together on these processes - how the county did it - gave them our research and work - that they then took to do their own outreach,” said Moody.
A team effort North Port Utilities Director Nancy Gallinaro said she is thankful for during the joint meeting.
"Coming here and seeing this is really encouraging for me because I was in Portland where I served on the estuary board for eight years. Really, the regionalized approach is the way for us to protect, preserve and even restore our waterways," said Gallinaro.
Wong said they just started surveying their waterways and plan to give a full presentation of their results in one year.
